In the past I’ve warned about the common “fake purchase receipt” scam, which involves an email claiming to be confirmation of a purchase. These phony receipts are usually for some sort of tech software like McAfee and often for many hundreds of dollars. The scammers’ goal is for you to call them demanding a refund, which they will happily process if you just provide your financial information. I have seen a worrying variation of this scam several times over the past month. In these cases, the scammer’s email shows up as a Quickbooks or Paypal invoice with a payment link. But here’s the rub – the email is a legitimate Quickbooks/Paypal invoice! The scammers appear to be signing up for real Quickbooks/Paypal online accounts, then blasting out real invoices for phony services. Because it’s an authentic email, it bypasses spam filters. And if you click the payment link the scammers end up with your money. I suspect they are opening and closing accounts frequently to avoid being caught, only keeping them alive long enough to get paid by a handful of victims. The old advice still rings true for this latest scam: if you don’t remember ordering that product or service, call the real company to verify (and don't use any phone number listed in that email).
